Par EF-10/20/40

Last year, this developed a fault. 

I strung an end-fed wire using the Par transformer out of the shack window. The VSWR looked low, so I assume this Par transformer is fine. At some point I shall re-erect this tri-band antenna, but with new coax. Either there was moisture in the coax or the plug had failed.

In the past I have been spotted all over the planet with this antenna and 500mW WSPR on 10m. It is good for 35W, although my absolute maximum is 10W and often much lower. With WSPR and FT8 it is far lower.

Fault finding my Par endfed 102040 antenna

Since taking it down I have realised I can check if the coax was faulty by connecting a 10m dipole (endfed at the shack) and running the wire down the garden. If it is the coax I can replace it and get on 10m, 20m and 40m.  

With this antenna I had 10m spots from all over the world (including Australia and Antarctica) with 500mW WSPR.

JT65 20m 2-way QSO

About 45 minutes ago I worked EA1EAS (1335km) on 20m JT65. This was with the Par tri-band antenna running 5W via the ATU. I received a better report than I gave.  I don't think there is much wrong with the Par antenna and wonder if the wet weather has made it go off tune? The ATU easily corrects the mis-match and it certainly works. From PSK reporter I see than I was being copied all across Europe again.

Antenna faulty

It looks like my tri-band Par antenna, which should be a good match on 10m, 20m and 40m is faulty.  It is a good match on 10m, but only on 20m and 40m via the ATU. Tomorrow I shall try loading it up as a long wire tuned against ground via the ATU. Somewhere I have a Sandpiper Poliakov vertical that I should erect. As I recall  this has a 9:1 unun so it matches well on most HF bands via an ATU.

Even soldering on a coax is hard work these days! Oh to be fit.

At the moment I am on 630m WSPR using the earth-electrode "antenna".

LNR Precision 5 band HF transceiver - the LD-5

Steve G1KQH has found a link to this new transceiver https://www.facebook.com/pages/LnR-Precision-Inc/229134337165152?hc_location=timeline. It looks a bit like the Elecraft KX3 but I hope it is much less expensive as it only covers 5 bands on TX.

LNR are the people that make the Par line of antennas now. They hope to start taking orders in September. Apparently they had quality issues in China with the 4-band version.

Back to Par 3 band external antenna

Now the threat of storms has gone for the day I am going back on the external Par 10/20/40m end-fed wire antenna. This happened at 1515z.

Sunspot count today is zero (very low) with 20-30MHz propagation forecast to be just "fair". I shall be lucky to see F2 DX today on 10m. Es has been very good on the indoor loop.

UPDATE 1520z:   First 10m WSPR spot back on the external Par antenna was from SM6WZI (1007km)  at -1dB S/N for my 2W. This is a very good report. Again, the Es seems to be favouring more northern latitudes.

10m WSPR spots since going back to the Par wire antenna outdoors

UPDATE 1727z:  Still just the mix of EU Es stations since going back to the Par antenna.

UPDATE 1830z:  Just G8JNJ/A (184km) being spotted currently. All Es seems to have disappeared.

UPDATE 1940z:  Out of the blue pops OK2SAM (1283km) just detectable on 10m WSPR at -32dB S/N. So there is still ES about on 10m.

UPDATE 2140z:   Plenty of 10m Es this evening including spots from 3VSWL in Tunisia and DK0SC . I spotted I and EA.  As thunder storms may build overnight I shall be going QRT and disconnecting rig and antennas.

HF antenna erected at new QTH

This afternoon, I strung out my Par 40/20/10 horizontal end-fed HF antenna for 40, 20 and 10m from the base of my V2000 vertical to a tall branch of the silver birch tree at the end of my garden. Being a bungalow, the height is nothing great at around 4m above ground average. Match is excellent on 10m and 20m but the end wants trimming a few cm to improve the match on 40m.

I have just started WSPR beaconing at 1W on 20m to see how it performs and on the first transmission was spotted by N6RFM, LA6TPA, LA9JO and 4X1RF with reasonable reports. So, initial results look OK.

This now means I have the following TX capability from the new QTH:

(1) 630m - earth-electrode antenna
(2) 40, 20 and 10m HF - Par 40/20/10 antenna
(3) 6, 2 and 70cm - VHF/UHF V2000 vertical
(4) 2m - horizontal halo antenna
(5) 481THz optical - 110mm lens TX

All these antennas are unobtrusive and neighbour friendly. Now let me see how soon I can achieve QRP DXCC from this new QTH.

Experimenting will mean these antennas will come and go.

All my antennas now dismantled ready for the move

Today was an historic day: for the first time in around 20 years or more, I have NO antennas up outside at this QTH. The Par 10/20/40 end-fed HF antenna and the trusty V2000 VHF/UHF tri-band colinear were taken down this evening. The V2000 has been up continuously now for the best part of 10-12 years and is in remarkable condition still. Apart from a bit of dirt on the fibre glass covers and a little oxidisation on the metalwork, it is like new and electrically still works perfectly. There are several "copies"  of this antenna around, some of which are nothing like the original version.

It will be some days before I get the antennas sorted and erected at the new QTH, but at least the brackets and antenna hardware are now down and available for a suitable moment.

Par EF-10/20/40 Antenna and a comparison

This afternoon I decided to take down my 10m halo for a while and replace it with a lower antenna: the LNR Precision (was Par) EF-10/20/40 end fed wire antenna, which I've owned for some years but not used recently. As it suggests, it covers 10, 20 and 40m with a very low SWR, although it is a reasonable match on several other HF bands too.

See http://www.hamradio.me/antennas/lnr-precision-ef-102040mkii-test-data.html for an analysis of this antenna.  The antenna works very well and on 40 and 20m WSPR I was getting plenty of spots with 500mW to 5W.

Photo on http://www.hamradio.me website of the Par antenna

On 40m I did a comparison between the horizontal EF antenna and the earth-electrode antenna. A series of transmissions was made with each antenna in turn, then I compared WSPR spot S/N received from a number of stations.

The conclusion is the earth-electrode antenna is around 9-16dB down on the EF antenna on 40m, so averaging about 2.5 S-points down. The test is not too accurate as conditions change, the earth-electrode and EF have some directivity and the reports sample size was small.